Restraining belt



April 8, 1969 J. 1'. POSEY 3,437,089

RESTRAINING BELT Filed Jan. 25, 1967 I N VEN TOR. a/m T/ w'z/ BY v mzUnited States Patent 3,437,089 RESTRAINING BELT John T. Posey, 1739Meadowbrook Road, Altadena, Calif. 91001 Filed Jan. 23, 1967, Ser. No.611,022 Int. Cl. A61g 7/04; A61f 5/02 US. Cl. 128134 6 Claims ABSTRACTOF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to a bed patientrestraining device or belt, and more particularly the present inventionincreases the ease with which such devices may be applied as well as theeffectiveness in restraining the patient.

Devices that tend to restrain the patient in his bed have long beenknown. All known devices use buckles to tie the end of the belt to eachother, or buckles in conjunction with hooks to tie the ends of the beltto the bed. These devices are difficult and cumbersome to apply.Moreover, the prior devices frequently have accelerated wear of the beltin the area of the buckles. A further shortcoming of the conventionaldevices is that to keep the patient comfortable and to avoid skinirritations such as rashes, they have to be wrapped around the patientsbody in a rather loose manner. This permits the patient to slip out ofthe belt. In instances where the patients are children, or, for example,have just regained consciousness after an anesthetic, a positiverestraint is important to prevent them from sustaining serious injurieswhich they cannot appreciate at the time they attempt to freethemselves.

My invention remedies these shortcomings by providing a belt that issecured to the bed by wrapping it around the frame and by fastening theends of the belt to suitable portions of the beds understructure, suchas the springs. It is also more easily applied because the need tobuckle the ends underneath the bed has been eliminated.

In addition, I provide a harness that attaches to the belt and reachesover the patients shoulders. In this manner the patient cannot slide outof a loosely tied loop in the restraining belt. He is effectively, yetcomfortably, restrained from leaving the bed.

These and other aspects of my invention will be more fully appreciatedfrom a consideration of the following detailed description and theaccompanying drawings, in

which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the restraining device and theharness installed on a bed with the restraining belt in an openposition; and

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of a bed showing one end of therestraining device attached thereto.

The present invention comprises an elongated strap 10 with either endattached to a bed 12, a belt 14 secured to the elongated strap 10 and afirst and a second harness loop 16 and 18 with one end secured to thebelt 14 and the other end secured to the elongated strap 10.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention the elongated strap10 is provided with conventional and commercially available self-lockingsnap rings 20 on either end. The belt 14 comprises a first strip 22 anda second strip 24 each secured at a respective end to the elongatedstrap 10' at spaced locations to permit the strips 22 and 24 to bewrapped around the waist of a patient. The free end of the second strip24 carries a conventional buckle 26 which receives and secures the looseend of the first strip -22 to form the belt 14.

The first and the second harness loops 16 and 18, respectively, aresecured to the elongated strap 10, say, by conventional stitching. Theopposite ends of the harness loops are stitched together to form a beltloop 27 through which the first strip 22 may be passed. The first andthe second harness loops are arranged to cross each other as shown inFIG. 1, and are stitched together at the crossing point 28. By crossingthe harness loops and securing them together the patient is preventedfrom spreading the harness loops 16 and 18 apart whereby he could slipthem off his shoulders and free himself.

The strap, the belt and the harness loops can be made of any suitablematerial, but preferably they are of a strong, reinforced webbing whichcan be laundered by ordinary means. The belt can furthermore be made insmall, medium, and large sizes to accommodate patients of different agesand sizes.

To use the restraining devices on a patient lying in a bed, theelongated strap 10 is placed transverse to the bed. The elongated strapis of sufficient length to permit its ends to extend beyond the side ofthe bed and hang loosely. Each end of the elongated strap 10 is tightlywrapped around a frame 30 forming part of the bed to make a snug,frictional fit around the frame. The loose ends of the elongated strap10 are stretched taut and attached to a member of the bedsunderstructure, such as a spring for example, by engaging the snap rings20 with it. The elongated strap 10 is in place and cannot be removedwithout unlocking the snap rings 20.

The first strip 22 and the second strip 24 are thus located on the bed.The buckle 26 is opened to release the first strip 22. The first stripis further slidably removed from the loop formed by the first and thesecond harness loops 16 and 18, respectively. The loose ends of thefirst strip 22 and the second strip 24 are turned to face towards theends of the elongated strap 10 to permit a patient to be placedintermediate the points where the first and the second strips aresecured to the elongated strap. The first and second harness loops 16and 18 are extended in an upward direction toward the patients head, asviewed in FIG. 1, to form a generally V-shaped opening between the beltloop 27 and the crossing point 28 of the two harness loops. The patientmay now be placed on the bed with his waist covering the intermediateportion of the elongated strap 10 between the first strip 22 and thesecond strip 24. The patients head rests in the generally V-shaped spaceformed by the extended harness loops 16 and 18.

The ends of the harness loops 16 and 18 forming the belt loop 27 arepulled over the patients head so one harness loop fits snugly over eachshoulder of the patient. The first strip 22 is passed through the beltloop 27 and the buckle 26 on the second strip 24 to snugly fit the firststrip and the second strip around the patients waist.

The patient is now effectively restrained from leaving the bed. The belt14 formed by the first strip 22 and the second strip 24 restrains thepatient from leaving the bed in a sideways direction. The harness loops16 and 18 prevent the patient from slidably freeing himself from hisengagement with the belt 14. The patient cannot free himself by slidablymoving in a downward direction away from the position of his head asviewed in FIG. 1, since the increasing size of the patients trunk cannotslide through and beyond the belt 14.

Thus, this invention not only positively restrains the patient to thebed, but also permits the belt 14 to be tied much more loosely than withprior devices-without sacrificing the restraining effectiveness of thisdevice. The patients comfort is thereby increased since discomfort andskin irritations caused by tightly fastened belts are substantiallyreduced.

What is claimed is:

1. A restraining device for keeping a patient in bed, the devicecomprising an elongated strap adapted to be disposed across a bed, meansfor securing the ends of the strap to the bed, a belt secured to theintermediate part of the strap, means for fastening the belt around theWaist of the patient, a first harness loop secured at one end to thebelt and at its other end to the strap, the first harness loop being ofsuflicient length to make a snug fit over one shoulder of the patient,and a second harness loop secured at one end to the belt and at itsother end to the strap, the second harness loop being of suificientlength to make a snug fit over the other shoulder of the patint.

2. A restraining device for keeping a patient in bed as claimed in claim1 wherein the harness loops cross behind the patients back.

3. A restraining device for keeping a patient in bed as claimed in claim2 wherein the harness loops are secured together at a point where theycross.

4. A restraining device for keeping a patient in bed, the devicecomprising an elongated strap adapted to be disposed across a bed, asnap ring on each end of the strap to secure the ends of the strap tothe bed, a belt secured to the intermediate part of the strap, means forfastening the belt around the waist of the patient, a first harness loopsecured at one end to the belt and at its other end to the strap, thefirst harness loop of sufiicient length to make a snug fit over oneshoulder of the patient, and a second harness loop secured on one end to4 the belt and at its other end to the strap, the second harness loopbeing of sufficient length to make a snug fit over the other shoulder ofthe patient.

5. A restraining device for keeping a patient in bed, the devicecomprising an elongated strap adapted to be disposed across a bed, meansfor securing the ends of the strap to the bed, a first and a secondstrip secured to the intermediate portion of the strap disposed acrossthe bed, the first strip being provided with a buckle to fasten thesecond strip around the waist of the patient to form a belt, a firstharness loop secured at one end to the belt and at the other end to thestrap, the first harness loop being of suflicient length to make a snugfit over one shoulder of the patient, and a second harness loop securedat one end to the belt and at its other end to the strap, the secondharness loop being of sufficient length to make a snug fit over theother shoulder of the patient.

6. A restraining device for keeping a patient in bed as claimed in claim'5 whereby the first and the second harness loops are stitched togetherto form a loop through which the belt may be passed to secure the firstand the second harness loops of the belt.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,816,262 7/1931 Ritter 1281341,930,378 10/1933 Beagan 12 8--134 X 3,046,982 7/1962 Davis 128-434ADELE M. EAGER, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 244.

